In many work environments, particularly those that employ a fleet of machines that cooperate to perform a common task, productivity and efficiency of one machine may have a significant impact on the productivity and efficiency of other machines. For example, many large fleets include a combination of old and new machines. The old machines may be slower, more susceptible to fatigue, and less productive than new machines. In certain situations, the limited performance capabilities of the older machines may limit the productivity of the newer machines and, ultimately, the productivity of the work environment.
In mining environments, for example, dump trucks or haulers may be used to transport material from an excavation site to a production or delivery site via a haul route. Because mine operators are typically compensated based on the weight of material that is excavated from the mine and delivered for production, the profitability of the mining environment may ultimately depend on the speed and efficiency with which material is transported from the excavation site to the delivery site. In order to maximize the profitability of the mining environment, it may be advantageous to monitor and regulate the operation of each machine using the haul route, so that slower, less capable machines do not negatively impact faster, more productive machines.
One system for monitoring and regulating the operation of one or more vehicles operating in a common environment is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,932 (“the '932 patent”) to Kageyama et al. The '932 patent describes a vehicle monitoring system for directing or controlling movements of a plurality of vehicles operating in a worksite to minimize the interference between, and avoid the collision of, one or more of the vehicles. The vehicle monitoring system of the '932 patent includes position measuring equipment for measuring a position of one or more vehicles within the worksite. The vehicle monitoring system may be configured to calculate the travel distance, bearing, and speed of the vehicles. Based on the monitored position and calculated travel distance, bearing, and speed of the vehicles, the vehicle monitoring system may provide speed and directional commands to vehicle operators. These commands may limit the potential for vehicle collisions and reduce congestion in the worksite. In some cases, if the command signals are not obeyed, the vehicle monitoring system may override the operator controls and cause the machine to take appropriate measures (e.g., pull over, decelerate, etc.) to avoid a potential collision.
Although conventional systems may increase worksite efficiency by regulating speed and bearing of traveling vehicles to reduce congestion, they may be insufficient in certain situations. For example, many conventional systems, such as the system described in the '932 patent, merely provide commands to vehicle operators to adjust operating speed and/or bearing after the vehicle is underway, so as to avoid interference with other vehicles during vehicle travel. These systems, however, may not identify performance flaws of underperforming vehicles and take measures to prevent these flaws from affecting operations of other vehicles.
Furthermore, conventional vehicle monitoring systems may not be equipped to regulate the loading characteristics of the vehicles based on performance characteristics of the vehicles. As a result, work environments that routinely load vehicles to their maximum capacity may unnecessarily overburden slow or underperforming vehicles, which may, in turn, limit or reduce the maximum speed that these vehicles can travel. In doing so, these overburdened vehicles may unnecessarily limit the speed of following vehicles, thereby potentially slowing operations within the work environment and reducing worksite productivity. Conventional systems that merely adjust the speed of one or more vehicles so as to avoid interference between the vehicles may not adequately address performance changes of each vehicle based on the payload levels corresponding thereto.
The presently disclosed performance-based haulage management system is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.